Yoenis Cespedes arrives, speaks to media

A’s star left fielder Yoenis Cespedes arrived in camp this morning and he spent 10 minutes or so with the media, with Ariel Prieto interpreting.

asbeat18_ph1

Lance Iversen/The Chronicle

The most important bit of news to come out of the session: Cespedes isn’t crazy about the idea of DHing much. “I don’t like that too much,” he said, adding that he would prefer to DH only when he really needs a day off from playing the field. Manager Bob Melvin said he likes that Cespedes wants to play in the field every day, but given how hard he plays, he’s probably going to get a rest now and then, and Melvin would rather give him a rest by DHing him rather than losing him from the lineup.

Cespedes was asked a bit about the legal issues that weighed him down toward the end of last season, which I reported last month. He said that he was preoccupied sometimes, but he tried never to let the problems with a financial lawsuit in the Dominican Republic and fears over his family’s safety affect him on the field last year; he did his best to focus on what he had to do on the field. (He told me last month, however, he believes he will play even better this season with some of the issues resolved and with his family safe; his mother has moved from the Dominican, for instance.)

Cespedes was so bothered by his legal issues last fall that he stopped speaking to the media, too upset to really talk to anyone. He showed today that he’s feeling much, much better about things: He laughed and joked around, and when asked when he might do his first English interview (he’d promised July of last year), he grinned and said, “2015,” because, he said, he wants to keep Prieto employed.

Asked if he plans to grow a beard, Cespedes gave an emphatic no, and then asked about Josh Reddick’s crazy mountain-man beard, Cespedes shook his head and sighed in disgust.

I asked him about the foot/ankle problem that bothered him at the end of the season and into the playoffs, a bad bone bruise, and he said it took two weeks of rest in the offseason before it healed. He’s fine now.

Also in camp today: shortstop Addison Russell, the A’s top prospect. He recently turned 19 and he’s the youngest player in any major league camp. He didn’t know that, but when he heard, he said, “Insane.”

Russell said he plans to copy all the good habits he sees in big-league camp and he will watch the middle infielders and the pitchers especially – he wants to learn the tricks of the trade at his own position and learn a little about what big-league pitchers try to do with hitters. And of course he’ll also pay attention to how Oakland’s batters prepare.